Over at liberal Huff Po Religion there is a piece I want to respond to that’s titled “Did Jesus Predict Muhammad?” This is part 2 of my response and earlier I wrote Part 1: Starting already in the Wrong Direction. In this post I will start to look at the bad exegesis found in part 2 of the article “Did Jesus Predict Muhammad?” Obviously Huff Po makes this out to be a great article. One starts wondering if there’s great exegesis going on here. But what I learned about Huff Posts Religion is that there’s a lot of huff and puffs, but no bites as far as exegesis or sound thinking is concerned. For instance, half a year ago they have on their website another piece that I responded to titled “HuffPost is wrong: Islamophobia is Racism?”

While it isn’t the main focus of the writer’s core argument that Jesus predicted Muhammad, we see right off the bat that the writer’s first effort in looking at a Biblical passage results in a bad interpretation. It’s like a sign of things to come.

Over at liberal Huff Po Religion there is a piece I want to respond to that’s titled “Did Jesus Predict Muhammad?” I’m responding to this because it’s a terrible article that no doubt probably has many people reading it but one that is plague with the lack of clear thinking. HuffPo Religion often have articles that provides many examples of how not to do theology. This is one of them.

Our writer begins his essay saying

The time has come for Christians and Muslims to make peace between our communities. Christians and Muslims already make up more than half of the global population, and these numbers are expected to grow in the coming decades; according to the Pew Research Center, by 2050, two thirds of humanity, some 5.7 billion people, will be either Christian or Muslim.

Our planet simply cannot afford another century of misunderstanding and violence between these two communities. The challenges we face as a global human family are profound: ongoing warfare and nuclear proliferation, global poverty and economic inequality, climate change and ecological degradation. How will humanity handle these crises and others if our two largest religious communities are embroiled in constant conflict, if misunderstanding defines our relationship?

Response:

As a Christian I definitely don’t want violence between Christians and Muslims.

What does our writer think is the source of the problem of lack of peace between these two communities? It’s very telling when he says “Our planet simply cannot afford another century of misunderstanding and violence between these two communities” and “misunderstanding defines our relationship.” According to the writer it’s a result of misunderstanding between the two communities.

I do think there are misunderstandings among those in the two communities.

But misunderstandings is not enough of a reason to explain violence. People often have misunderstanding of my ethnic minority background. But that doesn’t mean somehow there’s violence done towards me in of itself. It’s an inadequate explanation on the part of the author; ironically, it’s a misunderstanding that doesn’t account for radical Jihadists who commit violence against Christians who have been exposed if not even raised up in largely Western countries where one can’t just say it resulted from a mere misunderstanding. Something deeper and more complex is going on and the author’s explanation is too simplistic.

If one identify what’s the problem wrongly, then don’t be surprised that the solutions offered would also be wrong.

Ryan Grim is the Washington Bureau Chief for the left leaning The Huffington Post.

He has a piece out today titled “Dear Islamophobes: Your Racism Is Putting Us All In Danger.”

Several times in Grim’s article he charged Islamophobes for being racists:

The challenge for the U.S., which Obama attempted to address in his speech on Sunday, will be how to put the racist genie back in the bottle.

And

Even if deep in your gut you harbor deep fear or suspicion of people you think might be Muslim, do the rest of us this favor: Keep it to yourself. Don’t spread that fear and discrimination in the name of patriotism, if only because it is guaranteed to backfire. Your racism is putting all of us in danger.

I agree with the writer that we should not lash out violently against Muslims and we must be responsible for unnecessary heated rhetorics. But if you are looking for careful nuance thought in the whole piece from Ryan Grim, chances of that is rather grim.

I heard there’s a shooting near Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs and it looks like there’s not a lot of clear information yet but I already see on social media the pro-abortionists already are heating up the blame game rhetoric against the pro-life cause. I think its unfounded. Why? Two reasons.

The blogger behind Eternity Matters has written a great comment in our previous post that’s worthy of being a post! One should also check out his blog! He’s responding to an objection typically used by pro-abortionists such as Cherisse Scott who recently recycled that pro-lifers “are nowhere to be found once our children are born.”